Vélez-Málaga town hall to go ahead with rubbish tax despite calls to suspend it

Vélez-Málaga town hall has announced that will go ahead with the collection of the controversial new municipal waste charge. The full council meeting held on Tuesday 22 September rejected the proposal by the opposition political party Andalucía por Sí to suspend the collection of the charges, with councillors from the ruling coalition formed of the PP and GIPMTM voting against it. The PSOE, Vox, Andalucía por Sí and the independent councillor, Elías García, all supported the suspension proposed by Andalucía por Sí.

The vote has brought back to the council chamber one of the issues that has generated the most political and local controversy in the eastern Costa del Sol town recent months. More than fifty citizens attended the session, filling the seats reserved for the public. Unlike what happened at the council meeting in late August, when protests forced the session to be adjourned early, Tuesday's debate was able to proceed without incident. On 31 August, protests by local residents and shopkeepers led to the meeting being suspended.

The spokesperson for Andalucía por Sí, José Pino, argued that the town hall has the scope to halt the procedure and has rejected the local executive’s argument that this is not legally possible. “You can put this charge on hold,” he insisted during the debate. Pino also reiterated his criticism that the introduction of the new charge has not been accompanied by equivalent tax relief. “There’s no money to reduce the property tax, but there is for fairs, festivals and fanfare,” he said.

The councillor for finance, Manuel Gutiérrez (PP) referred to a report which concludes that there is no justification for suspending collection because the projected revenue is factored into the council’s budgetary adjustment plans. As an alternative, the councillor has asked taxpayers to identify any errors in their tax assessments and to lodge appeals for reconsideration. He has proposed speeding up the resolution of these appeals, waiving certain surcharges while they are being processed and refunding any amounts unduly paid once the claim has been upheld.

The council maintains that tax bills must continue to be processed, while leaving open the possibility of individual reviews of cases where issues may arise, including duplicate charges, discrepancies in the square metres attributed to certain premises, or other possible errors.

The charge came into effect on 1 January. The two tax by-laws – one for dwellings and similar properties and the other for economic activities – were finally approved by the full council on 31 October 2025 and published in the Province’s Official Bulletin (BOP) on 3 December. Its introduction is in response to national Law 7/2022, which requires local councils to have a specific, differentiated and financially self-sustaining charge or service to fund the collection, transport and treatment of waste; the specific details are determined by each local authority. Its entry into force has led to complaints in other municipalities such as Alhaurín de la Torre.

In Vélez-Málaga, for residential properties, the estimates used during the legislative process put the annual charges at between 101.86 and 135.54 euros. The charge comprises a fixed component of 62.66 euros and a variable component based on factors such as floor area, the cadastral value and the zone to which the property is assigned. In the case of businesses and economic activities, the type of business, the estimated amount of waste generated and the floor area of the premises are also taken into account. The town hall estimated annual revenue of around 7.2 million euros.

The issuing of the first tax bills has forced the town hall and the provincial tax collection office to also set up a procedure for reviewing potential anomalies. They have agreed to examine on a case-by-case basis situations involving self-employed individuals and businesses where there may be duplicate charges, errors in the census data or discrepancies in the figures used to calculate the tax liabilities. The local government insists that those affected must appeal against each tax assessment if they believe it contains errors.

The town hall also estimates that 1,051 households could qualify for a 95 per cent reduction if they meet the established vulnerability criteria and calculates that a further 350 large families could qualify for a 50 per cent reduction. These figures represent potential beneficiaries, not concessions already granted. According to the opposition, these rebates will amount to barely 127,000 euros a year.

The controversy will now also spill out onto the streets as Andalucía por Sí, the PSOE and Vox in Vélez-Málaga have called for a rally against the levy on 7 October at 8pm on Plaza de las Carmelitas and aim to bring other opposition groups, collectives and citizens’ organisations on board. The PSOE is also pursuing legal action against the by-laws.